Venture Capital Groups Seeking ITV Bid

All true, but Dyke was also boss of LWT at a crucial time of change in ITV, which was from 1988 to 1994, this was a time when Premiership Football was snatched off ITV thanks to Rupert Murdoch, it was also when Thames Television disappeared and was replaced with Carlton which in terms of programming was far less powerful, in this time LWT became stronger as it was the main ITV Production house in London, it also became home to Carlton's Transmission, London News Network and GMTV.

This was a time also when it was considered to make ITV a bit more upmarket, so things like Wresting on a Saturday Afternoon was axed, it was also a time when alot less was being put into Comedy with far more Drama being produced in LWT and the rest of ITV.

It was also thanks to Dyke that we have the current ITV Network Centre that operates today, in the old days only Thames, LWT, ATV/Central, Granada and Yorkshire decided what would be shown on ITV, but when Dyke was head of TVS, him and the station's founder James Gatward weren't happy with this system as they felt it was unfair for TVS to be fed programming rather than contribute to it, or as they put it, to become 'The 6th Major'

Personally I don't know what would happen if Dyke ever became in charge of ITV, though this doesn't sound rather promising, he didn't do a bad job at the BBC and frankly he knows more about Television than Charles Allen, who is more of a Business man.

To be honest to run ITV you need someone who not only knows all about driving good audience figures with a right mix of programmes that caters for MOST tastes, but you also need a person who is a very shrewd business man.

In my honest opinion Greg Dyke is THE man to rescue ITV. He may initially import programmes, but once the advertising revenues start rising then more home-grown programmes will be made again. Greg Dyke has tempted fate on numerous occasions and has always come out on top. He is a people person, he knows what people want and to me that is good enough. ITV WILL SURVIVE AND PROSPER and will oneday overtake SKY and a multi-channel leader IF Greg Dyke takes to the helm.

This is a bit biased as I am a great fan of Greg Dyke and what he has done/created over the years at TVS, TVam, LWT and at the BBC

It has been said that it would be the wrong time for a takeover. They have just installed a new comissioning team at ITV1 with practically every top job changing hands. We don't know what they will have in store yet. Some industry commentators have said its the strongest team they've had in years.

Charles Allen, although not exactly a popular figure here, seems to have the business side of things running smoothly, so we need to see what Shap's programming side looks like in the next few months

I would be very cautious in saying that Greg Dyke could be ITV's saviour.

TV-am, LWT and to a slightly lesser extent TVS were all companies with very little in the way of competition. The ITV of today is a very different environment commercially. LWT in particular was always complacent in the way it approached advertisers etc... because it was the most watched ITV region in the network.

Personally, I would say he would probably bring a lot of stability to the network, but it's not as clear cut as that.

Why do you feel the need to CAPITALISE certain parts of your SENTENCES ? Is it because you think we are a BUNCH OF THICKOS that need to have it spelt out to us ? Isn't it a touch PATRONISING ?

I believe in what I was saying and wanted to emphasise my belief - only other way is to italic but that does not show the strength of my convictions!

I never patronise anyone - what's the point in it as everyone have their own beliefs!!!

Well they've been lucky for their first two years as one company, they've only made so much profit due to the fact that costs and overheads came down alot during consolidation, whether it be merging the departments of Carlton London and LWT, or whether they move out of Carlton Studios in Nottingham into a little Newsroom on the outskirts of the city.

They've been fortunate enough in the second year to have their Public Service Requirements cut back by a bit, and that their Licence Fees to the government have been reduced sharply, which has gone in their favour.

I'd want to see what happens within the next year, as the majority of the new comissioning team's programming will be shown and to see whatever impact this has on the schedule, whether this be positive or negative, and the fact they've had no more reductions on behalf of Ofcom and HM Government. Thus one year's worth of Normal trading, as one company, doing what they intend to do and not to have new things happening here and there....

Charles Allen may have survived this time, but who else thinks that he is now only on borrowed time before he is ousted?